Verstappen thanks Red Bull after pole: "Have a very good car"

Max Verstappen made it very exciting in the Austrian qualifying session. In the final run, both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz went under his time, but it was not enough to keep the Dutchman from pole position. The Red Bull Racing driver is obviously satisfied.

Verstappen recorded a yellow first and second sector in his final lap, which made it look like Leclerc would be allowed to start from first place again, but nothing was further from the truth. Thanks to a great third and last sector, Verstappen was 29 thousandths below Leclerc's time.

Mercedes Crashes

"We had to wait a very long time between the two runs," Verstappen is referring to the crashes of both Mercedes in Q3. "That's not great when you're in the flow you want to go through at once. The track temperature drops and the wind direction changes, but in the end, it was very exciting in qualifying. It's a challenging track to be on top of. There are not many corners, but the ones we have here are very tricky. It's easy to make a mistake."

The 24-year-old Dutchman continued: "I am very happy with the pole, but we all know that the points will only be distributed on Saturday and Sunday. I think we have a very good car. Qualifying is normally not our strongest point, so I hope we can get through the first corner without any problems. Anything can happen from there, but I'm confident in the car."

Many fans Verstappen in Austria

Verstappen also has some nice words for the crowd at the Red Bull Ring. "It's great to see so many fans and so much orange here. The support I've been getting here for years certainly puts a smile on my face. I hope we can make it a great weekend," he concludes.